Fourscore minus one years ago*, Bro. William Sowders brought forth on this continent a new work of God, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all Christians are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great Amorite** war testing whether that work or any work so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.
We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
Around us is destruction and chaos and a complete forgetfulness of why this work was begun.
Those brave men who struggled in the early days of this work were dedicated to the knowledge that truth could be found in any denomination, and that the only way for the truth of the Word of God to truly be found was for men of differing Christian opinions to come together and share what they had and where they found it in the Bible.
Because of their dedication, many battles were fought, some even bloody. Yet, through it all some precious truths were gleaned.
It was at this point that we closed our doors. We said, "Wow! It worked! We found something precious! We are now better than everyone else. We will no longer listen to any teachings but our own. All others must come to us."
The threshing ceased ('though not all the arguments), as did the battles; but at what cost? The men of God whom Bro. Sowders called equal brothers under God, we now call Babylon and the beast system. Not only did we cease to share our treasures so that God's truth could be spread throughout Christendom, but we also refused to hear anything new. Thus, we quit growing in the Lord.
Our assemblies, once thriving, filled with youth and energy and growth, have become complacent. Instead of growing, we are fading. Our youth is leaving. In many places, the thrill and joy in the Lord has been replaced by blind waiting for the rapture (although we do not call it that).
The hope of our salvation has been replaced by our hope that the end times will finally come. Then the people with whom we refuse to share God's truth outside of our buildings will miraculously come pounding on our doors begging for it.
We quote the scripture, "Many are called but few are chosen" to excuse the dwindling state of our assemblies. We quote, "The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved," to excuse hiding inside the walls of our churches and refusing to share the truth with those around us.
We hide our light and do our best to blend in and not make waves under the guise of "letting the Lord shine through our lives".
We say we want to be like the Early Church, but we completely ignore how the Early Church functioned.
The Early Church did not put out a sign and hope people would show up. Nor did they hide in homes and trust in meeting enough neighbors to grow the work of God.
They preached on the streets, in the synagogues, in the public markets. They were NEVER silent.
And as people came in, knowing nothing of the scriptures and needing to be taught, they set up elders - Godly men, not politicians - to teach them. These men had lives that proclaimed Jesus as Lord. Their job was to teach and settle disputes. Not to rule. Their goal was to help people grow up. Not to keep them children.
We need to go back to our foundations. Back to letting Jesus be Lord of our churches and remember that it was not the son who knew his father's will that pleased his father... it was the son who DID his father's will.
Matthew 21:28-31
28 But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.
29 He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.
30 And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.
31 Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.
Interesting, reading that story again, I found I missed something. It ends with a warning, lest those we despise enter the kingdom of heaven before us...or instead of us.
In short, Bro. Sowders despised no man, in his fellowship or not. What gives us the right to do so? It was his inclusion of those we despise that led us to the truths we now treasure.
How many truths/treasures are we missing now that we have cut off those not in our fellowship? How many "truths" have we twisted because we have not allowed others to challenge them? How often is our walk with God based solely on what we know, while we ignore (or type and shadow away) what we are asked to do?
Complacency & pride are a dangerous combination.
*(The date at the beginning of this blog is based on the start up of the Campground at Shepherdsville Hill in 1935. Bro. Sowders actually had his first campground meeting, from what I understand, in 1914, exactly one hundred years ago this year. If my dates are incorrect, I apologize.)
** (Amorites were a picture of pride in the Bible.)
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